Books

Article

Copy and Paste

Alex Wright’s history of American journalists is fun, but those early editors are not exemplars for the future.

By Paul Moses

August 27, 2026

History

Books

Media

Article

Politics and the Limits of Language

Ben Rhodes's new book makes an earnest case for the political power of words. But the degradation of our public life can’t be reversed by rhetoric alone.

By Drew Calvert

August 17, 2026

Barack Obama

Politics

Books

Article

Seeds of Something New

Éric Rohmer's only novel throws into relief the psychological acuity of the New Wave director's best films. It's still far from a great work.

By Tim Markatos

August 12, 2026

Books

Culture

Article

A 'Radical Universalism'?

Three writers—a Jewish theologian, a legal scholar and intellectual historian, and a Catholic philosopher of religion—reflect on Omri Boehm’s call for a "radical universalism."

By The Editors

August 11, 2026

Philosophy

Religion

Politics

Article

Self-Evident Truths?

Three writers—a Jewish theologian, a legal scholar and intellectual historian, and a Catholic philosopher of religion—reflect on Omri Boehm’s call for a "radical universalism."

By The Editors

August 11, 2026

Article

A Lesson Wasted

The memory of almost being hanged by Trump supporters doesn’t appear to have clarified Mike Pence’s conscience.

By Pedro L. Gonzalez

August 10, 2026

Donald Trump

Books

Article

Whose German Idealism?

In 'Radical Universalism,' Omri Boehm fails to explain why we should listen to Kant instead of Hegel and Marx.

By Samuel Moyn

August 10, 2026

Philosophy

Politics

Religion

Article

Bloody Certitudes

Omri Boehm’s politics suffer from an excess of certitude and righteousness, a deficit of lament, and a proclivity for and ease with lethal violence.

By Paul J. Griffiths

August 8, 2026

War and Peace

Philosophy

Nonfiction

Article

Civil Style

In his biography of W. H. Auden, Peter Ackroyd tracks the constant tension between public and private life that the poet navigated.

By Gus Mitchell

August 8, 2026

Poetry

Books

Nonfiction

Article

A Fairy Tale Ending?

Trump is the sort of miser you come across in some especially ghoulish fairy tale. Will he ever get his comeuppance?

By Paul Baumann

August 6, 2026

Donald Trump

Politics

Culture

Article

Imitation of Life

J. D. Vance’s ‘Communion’ and Lena Dunham’s ‘Famesick’ are two sequels to splashy, confessional memoirs by millennial authors. Only one of them is fun to read.

By Dorothy Fortenberry

August 5, 2026

Article

Released from Countdowns

Harriet Clark's debut novel is in explicit conversation with Marilynne Robinson's 'Housekeeping.' Remarkably, it stands up to the comparison.

By Anthony Domestico

August 4, 2026

Culture

Books

Fiction

Article

Close to the Bone

Jim Thompson, the most "titillatingly depraved crime novelist of the twentieth century," penned iconic psychopathic protagonists and redefined the genre of noir.

By Patrick Preziosi

August 4, 2026

Books

Death and Dying

Secularism and Modernity

Article

… In his justly celebrated “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther … one strongly suspects the latter, but he never quite says so. Boehm’s philosophical … with a straight answer. Arguably, they have never received one that is completely …

By Shai Held

August 4, 2026

Philosophy

Social Justice

Theology

Article

‘More Broken Glass’

Dave Eggers’s latest novel is the meditation of an older, successful artist on what his life might have been if he had been unable to work successfully.

By Gideon Leek

August 3, 2026

Books

Culture

Fiction

Article

The Culture-War Factory

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, provocative art came to be leveraged for right-wing political power. We're still dealing with the consequences.

By Mark Athitakis

July 29, 2026

Culture

Books

Religion

Article

Why We Love to Hate Tradwives

“Yesteryear,” this year’s breakout novel, promises insights into the antifeminist phenomenon, but it doesn’t deliver.

By Heidi Schlumpf

July 23, 2026

Article

Say Everything

Inger N. I. Kuin’s new book presents Diogenes of Sinope, one of the original Cynics, as a thinker with a “revolutionary” philosophy.

By Costica Bradatan

June 30, 2026

Philosophy

Culture

Books

Article

Distressingly Resonant

Gabriele Tergit’s 1951 novel 'Effingers' paints a vast and amiably peopled panorama of German-Jewish life at the turn of the twentieth century.

By Morten Høi Jensen

June 30, 2026

History

Fiction

Books

Article

Trouble in Paradise

Chris Jennings's book about violent Christian separatists traces the fracturing of American society. But was America ever whole before, and can it ever be now?

By Tom Deignan

June 29, 2026

History

Nonfiction

Politics

Article

The Before and the After

Rachel Goldberg-Polin's son was abducted and killed by Hamas. Her memoir vividly chronicles her bereavement and activism in his name.

By Nava Grant

June 25, 2026

Middle East

Death and Dying

War and Peace

Article

Legends and Long Shots

Jay Neugeboren's "Dickensian" childhood eventually led to a prolific writing career.

By Paul Moses

June 25, 2026

Books

Domestic Affairs

Article

'No, But I Skimmed It'

If reflection, encounter, and devotion are our aims, then printed books and magazines are better tools than digital screens.

By Joel Halldorf

June 25, 2026

Article

Caught on the Hinge

To read Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' is to feel wobbles and flickers all around you.

By Anthony Domestico

June 24, 2026

Culture

Books

Technology

Article

Beyond Couch and Clinic

The late Robert Coles spent years meeting subjects where they were, from the first integrated classrooms to migrant farms to the Appalachian mountains.

By Kenneth L. Woodward

June 16, 2026

Farewell

Higher Education

Article

Why the West?

Bernd Roeck traces the roots of the Renaissance as far back as the sixth millennium BCE. His long view of history explores the “why” of Western culture’s success.

By Tom Verde

June 16, 2026

Books

History

Europe

Article

Consciousness Researchers Are Tripping

Michael Pollan's new book follows the race to uncover the nature of consciousness. He finds many leading scientists dabbling with psychedelics.

By Kit Wilson

May 26, 2026

Science

Books

Philosophy

Article

Love Without Reward

Can a theology of mourning keep Christians facing the decline of "the Christian West" from living in the past?

By Paul Lakeland

May 25, 2026

Theology

Death and Dying

Books

Article

Blessings & Curses in Disguise

In the short stories of Louise Erdrich's 'Python's Kiss,' our expectations are constantly upended—but we always remain in the hands of an expert storyteller.

By Michael O'Connell

May 25, 2026

Fiction

Domestic Affairs

Article

The Ownerist Society

Accumulating wealth is now the way many people seek to belong—to "buy" their place in the world. But an extrinsic source of belonging will always be fragile.

By Ian Marcus Corbin

May 25, 2026

Economy

Secularism and Modernity

History

Article

‘The Real Thing’

Among twentieth-century British artists, there seemed to be a mad rush to Rome. A new book endeavors to explain this explosion in Catholic conversions.

By Anthony Domestico

May 19, 2026

Books

Religion

Literature

Article

The Serpent in the Garden

Why do conservatives blame ‘cultural Marxism’ for nearly everything?

By Matt McManus

May 4, 2026

Article

The Loom of Literature

Pope Francis knew that literature is one of the rare human practices still able to establish a common ground.

By Antonio Spadaro

April 30, 2026

Article

A Crisis of Belonging

For Anton Jäger, ours is an era of political excitation absent durable organization. Pope Francis can help us envision a better way forward.

By Daniele Palmer

April 29, 2026

Politics

Culture

Books

Article

Dancing on a Volcano

In Ian Buruma’s telling, Berlin during World War II was a time of contradictions: hedonism, escapism, heroism, and compromise.

By Bryn Stole

April 28, 2026

History

Nonfiction

Europe

Article

Books in Brief

The Editors read about urban gardening, a fantasy baseball association, and the effects of Evangelical fire-and-brimstone rhetoric on children.

By The Editors

April 28, 2026

Books in Brief

Books

Article

‘Against Your Better Judgment’

Seamus Heaney's imaginative reach for the transcendent made him the model of a religious poet for a secular age.

By Kevin T. O’Connor

April 27, 2026

Poetry

Spirituality

Books

Article

Keep It Private

How did Americans become convinced that social problems are better left to the “free” market than to a democratically accountable government?

By George Scialabba

April 27, 2026

Books

Domestic Affairs

Economy

Article

The ‘Great Sort’ in American Religion

Political scientist and statistician Ryan Burge discusses polarization, declining institutions, and the future of religion in the United States.

By Heidi Schlumpf

April 27, 2026

Interview

U.S. Catholicism

Politics

Article

A Proper Education

In fiction and nonfiction by Black American Catholics, the parochial school looms large as a place of education, formation, and conversion—for good or ill.

By Aaron Robertson

April 27, 2026